The invention relates to a process and an apparatus for galvanizing a wire whereby the wire vertically leaves a zinc bath and the adhering liquid zinc forms the zinc layer after its solidification. Depending on the wire speed, bath temperature, wire dimension and similar influences, a certain portion of the liquid zinc adhering to the wire flows back into the bath. As a result, a certain thickness of the zinc layer remains on the wire. The zinc layer which can be attained in this way is too thin for many types of application.
An attempt was made to attain a thicker zinc layer by a method in which the wire was exposed immediately after leaving the zinc bath to a gas atmosphere which contained hydrogen sulfide as the active component. Hydrogen sulfide is, however, a very toxic and chemically very aggressive gas so that the implementation of such a process presents problems in practice.